Top Rope Top 10: The Best Active Wrestlers Today

The talent inheriting the landscape of professional wrestling may arguably be the best to ever grace the squared circle. We must not only look at the WWE to identify these 10 athletes as New Japan Pro Wrestling, Ring of Honor and Lucha Underground have showcased some of the best wrestlers and matches over the past year. Taking that into consideration, here are my top 10 active wrestlers today!

10. Dalton Castle

Dalton has connected with the fans in a way his androgynous predecessors never achieved. “The Party Peacock” packs a punch of fun that is all too often forgotten in a business built on bludgeoning your opponent. Castle’s wrestling and charisma combined to make him a standout in ROH where in-ring quality has always been the key focus.

09. The Miz

The Miz is the best heel the WWE has had in recent memory. His promos are continuously exceptional then the “shoot” feud with Daniel Bryan made him the best in the business. The addition of real-life wife, Maryse, only elevated the level of heat The Miz garnished from fans. His mic skills, a manager not afraid to interfere and some of his best in-work with Dolph Ziggler all aided the Miz into returning the Intercontinental Championship and himself to relevancy.

08. Zack Sabre Jr

If the last year and a half that Sabre is having is an indication of where he is going then the sky is the limit. From capturing the PWG World Championship, competing in the Cruiserweight Classic, winning the Evolve Championship, recapturing his British Heavyweight Championship or shocking the world by joining Suzuki-gun, Sabre is having one of the best runs outside of the WWE. He is having matches with a global who’s who of the wrestling world and becoming renowned for his in-ring work.

07. Tetsuya Naito

There is no one who is over man with the fans of Japan than this man. If it was not for, Omega versus Okada at Wrestle Kingdom XI then his match with Hiroshi Tanahashi would have earned match of the night honors. Naito has completed his second defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championships and his star power has never been more evident. There is no doubt that his stock will only continue to rise throughout 2017.

06. Chris Jericho

Jericho saves! Over the past year, he was the highlight of Raw. He helped elevate Kevin Owens to main event status. Jericho might not be the same in-ring performer he was in his youth but he has reinvented the wheel and kept himself on top of the game. This has become glowingly apparent during his absences from WWE television while touring with Fozzy.

05. Bobby Roode

Glorious might be an understatement at this point in Roode’s career as his current run in NXT has shown us nothing less than excellence. Roode relays an old school train of thought and it has only made him more successful. He does not rely on spots to sell his match but instead is considerably one of the best in-ring technicians and is capable of putting on a 5-star match anytime he jumps in the ring.

04. Shinsuke Nakamura

It can be argued that Nakamura is one of best in-ring performer today and what else would you expect from the man known as the King of Strong Style. His work is flawless as he smoothly transitions from move to move. His ability to sell is matched only by the best of all-time. It seems no matter if he was in Japan or NXT, each time that he entered the ring, he put on matches that can be considered candidates for match of the year. His mannerisms, charisma and in-ring skills will transcend him past Japanese legend into global icon.

03. Kazuchika Okada

This man is half the reason, I will be watching Dominion 11 live at 3:00 AM. Okada’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship title run is considered by many to be one of the best runs in the history of any title. Okada is not your garden variety champion relying heavily on his spots to sell his story, he prefers to tell a new story with each opponent and it has paid dividends for him. Whether against Kenny Omega, Katsuyori Shibata, Minoru Suzuki or Tiger Mask W aka Kota Ibushi, the matches have been near perfection each time. The adaptability of Okada makes him a true master of his craft.

02. AJ Styles

There might not be any better in-ring performer right now than AJ Styles. His accolades across the globe already put in him the top-tier of best in the world. It was his sudden rise on the WWE stage that put Style’s on another level. He has helped to make SmackDown Live the A Show for WWE t. His matches with Cena were instant classics and he got Shane McMahon over to put on one of the best matches at WrestleMania.

01. Kenny Omega

Since 2016, Kenny Omega has had one of the biggest impacts on professional wrestling, whether it was the turning on AJ Styles and taking control of the Bullet Club, or his epic match with Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 11, everything he seems to do is pure brilliance. Omega has the complete faith of NJPW as he became the first foreign wrestler to headline the Tokyo Dome since Brock Lesnar. He boosts one of the most unique characters in wrestling, infusing his love of video games and anime into his persona. Omega constantly redefining what it means to be the best in the business. His matches never fail to amaze and he can keep an audience on their toes.

Women’s Wrestling Wrap-Up

Welcome to the latest edition of the Women’s Wrestling Wrap-Up, which details everything in women’s wrestling in the past week, beginning with Monday’s Raw.

Raw was in Blue Jacket Country, aka Columbus, OH, and the latest edition featured a four way #1 Contender’s match pitting Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, Nia Jax, and Sasha Banks against each other for a shot against Bayley at Payback. In the end, Alexa picked up the victory in front of her home crowd, and she will face Bayley next Sunday at Payback in Bayley’s hometown of San Jose. This is a change in the original play to have Nia get the shot at Payback, but it appears that WWE is still upset over Nia’s match against Charlotte a week prior, which featured Charlotte landing on her head due to one of Nia’s moves. If they are adding a second Women’s match for Payback, I would think that it would be a three way between Sasha, Mickie, and Nia for a future title opportunity.

SmackDown kicked off with Charlotte demanding a title opportunity, with Naomi seemingly happy to oblige. Commissioner Shane McMahon decided to have Naomi face Charlotte in a non-title match, with Charlotte receiving a title shot should she win. Throughout the program, we would see Natalya, Carmella, and Tamina all voice their displeasure over Charlotte getting an opportunity, and it grew after Charlotte defeated Naomi later in the evening.

NXT featured tag team action, as Liv Morgan and Aliyah defeated Peyton Royce and Billie Kay. Impact Wrestling’s live show featured the Knockouts Championship contest that saw Rosemary retain against ODB, while Sienna again confronted Karen Jarrett and demanded to know the whereabouts of the Global Force Wrestling Women’s Champion, Christina Von Eerie. Karen stated that Von Eerie will make her presence felt next week.

Since the Superstar Shakeup, we have seen promos for Lana which have her debuting a new gimmick, supposedly portraying a villainous seductive dancer. Lana has been debuting that new character at NXT live events this week, and it has included the debut of MaryKate as Lana’s evil enforcer. Fans of MaryKate remember her on Impact as Rosie Lottalove, and after losing over 100 pounds, she returned to the indy circuit as Andréa, competing mostly for Shine Wrestling. MaryKate appeared on an edition of NXT in 2015, but it was a few months ago that she was officially signed by WWE. Regarding Lana, she won her match against Ruby Riot, and as shown in the photo, the evil MaryKate celebrated Lana’s victory. No word on when Lana’s re-debut will happen or if MaryKate will be packaged with her on TV.

As followers of Ring of Honor know, Taeler Hendrix left ROH earlier this month. Taeler had competed in ROH’s Women of Honor division for over a year, serving as the lead villainess of the division. Now that she’s gone, I truly think that they should turn Mandy Leon heel and have her replace Taeler as the top villainess in Women of Honor. Mandy definitely has a natural heel look; mostly like Nikki Bella. Mandy has apparently displayed a bit of a heel persona in recent matches, mainly a three-way match against Sumie Sakai and Jenny Rose. The tail end saw Mandy resort to some villainous methods towards Rose, and after Sakai won, Mandy took her time and looked upset before re-entering the ring to shake hands with her opponents. If/when she does turn heel, the evil Mandy could feud with either Sumie or Rose, or even feud with Deonna Purrazzo. Time will tell if Mandy does finally turn heel, but I believe she’ll shine as a villainous competitor in Women of Honor.

A new week begins tomorrow with the final Raw before Payback. Meanwhile, SD will feature a championship battle between Naomi and Charlotte! Until next week!

Piledriver Profile: Bobby Roode

Bobby Roode is the current NXT Champion and that in itself is…… Glorious! But who is Booby Roode? What road has he taken to be our NXT Champion? Let me try to answer those questions.

Robert Roode Jr was born May 11th 1979 in Scarborough Ontario Canada. He trained to become a professional wrestler in Canada under Sean Morley and Shane Sewell, 2 men well versed in technical wrestling. After a little over a year of training Roode went on to wrestle on the Independent circuit in Canada, mostly under the name “Total” Lee Awesome. After a couple of years on the Indy circuit, Roode made his way to WWE (or what was known then as WWF) in 2001. Roode wrestled a few dark matches for WWE in the 3 years he spent there under the name Rudy Rude, and appeared occasionally on a few episodes of Sunday Night Heat. Things didn’t work out for Roode his first stint with WWE as he left in 2004.

After leaving WWE in 2004 Roode would find his highest profile position to date. Roode joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling or TNA to join Team Canada for TNA. Roode and team Canada competed in the World X Cup, which was a tournament style series of matches pitting Wrestling from different nations against each other meant to see which nation was home to the best wrestlers. Team USA won this event, but this event proved to be just the exposure Roode needed. Roode was known as the Canadian Enforcer as team Canada went on to feud with Americas Most Wanted. Roode would spend 12 years total in TNA, being part of great feuds with the likes of Eric Young, Dustin Rhodes, Jeff Hardy, Abyss and Jeff Jarrett early in his single career.

Roode had a successful run as a singles competitor, but really showed his versatility by teaming with James Storm and forming Beer Money. This tag team would widely be considered as the best in the business during their time together, winning the TNA tag team titles 5 times and even once holding the titles for a TNA record 212 days. Beer Money would have some excellent feuds with the likes of The Motor City Machine Guns, Team 3D, Kazarian and Christopher Daniels, and The Hardy Boys. Roode would go on to become TNA World champion as he parlayed his tag team success into a singles windfall. Roode would become World Champion twice in TNA and would pursue the title several other times sparking great feuds with the likes of Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, Magnus, Austin Aries and MVP. Roode would eventually reunite with James Storm to reform Beer Money before leaving the company early in 2016. Shortly after leaving Roode would sign with WWE, and come to NXT where he has excelled in his short time here, already becoming NXT Champion. It’s been a long road for Roode but he is finally near the top of WWE, and that in itself is….. Glorious! As you can see first hand below.

Women’s Wrestling Wrap-Up (December 20, 2015)

Welcome to the latest edition of the Women’s Wrestling Wrap-Up, which takes a look at all of the goings-on in women’s wrestling, beginning with Monday’s Raw.

One day after cheating her way to a successful title defense against Paige, Charlotte teamed with Becky Lynch against Brie Bella and Alicia Fox. Team BAD (Naomi, Tamina, and Sasha Banks) was shown holding up signs in the crowd, but the main story was Charlotte and Becky, and mainly Becky’s protests against Charlotte’s increasingly villainous attitude, which, as we all know, began with Charlotte’s deceptive victory over Becky on November 30. The surreptitious tactics continued on Monday, as Ric Flair tripped up Alicia during their tag bout, allowing Charlotte and Becky to get the win. The interference happened unbeknownst to Becky, but it definitely made things interesting. More on this later.

The centerpiece of this past week was NXT Takeover: London, which took place on Wednesday. Airing at an early time of 3PM EST (Noon PST), the event kicked off with Asuka defeating Emma in what was a spectacular match between two alums of the Illinois-based SHIMMER promotion. Now, I’m left wondering what direction they’ll take with Asuka now, because she was shown staring down Nia Jax during her interview, but in an exclusive video on WWE.com, Dana Brooke, Emma’s partner in crime since April, stated that she and Emma are not done with Asuka. Hmmm. If so, we could see Adrienne Reese (best known as Athena on the indy circuit) make her televised NXT debut as Asuka’s partner.

Speaking of Nia Jax, her title opportunity against Bayley was the last match before the NXT Championship main event. Either outcome would have been fine with me, but I thought that WWE would put the title on Nia, but that was not the case, as Bayley picked up a submission win. First off, let me say that Nia Jax is what the Divas Division needed for years: a villainous powerhouse with a lot of personality. Before Nia, the closest WWE had was Beth Phoenix, but even she isn’t as imposing as Nia. I do see Nia Jax receiving a huge push in due time, but in the meantime, what’s next for Bayley? Will it be Asuka? Dana Brooke? Or will we see Eva Marie in the picture again. Only time will tell.

Back to Charlotte and Becky. The tension continued to grow on SmackDown this past Thursday, when Becky competed against Brie Bella, doing so after Becky found out about Ric Flair’s interference. Even so, Charlotte appeared at ringside during the match and cheered Becky on. That wasn’t all the devious Divas Champion did, as Charlotte tripped up Brie, and this time, Becky caught this, but she capitalized and picked up the submission win. However, after the match ended, Becky confronted Charlotte regarding her actions, stating that she wants to win on her own merit. Charlotte stated that she wanted Becky to win, suggesting that Becky can’t win on her own. Again, time will tell regarding this angle, but I see Charlotte turning against Becky and becoming a full-fledged villainess before 2016 is ringed in. Either Charlotte will intentionally cost Becky a match, or she’ll flat out attack Becky. Or both; anything’s possible.

No Knockouts were in action, but websites reported that Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis are finishing their time with Ring of Honor, and they could be TNA bound. If so, Maria Kanellis will be the latest former Diva to become a TNA Knockout, and she would be part of a long list that includes Gail Kim, Mickie James, Victoria/Tara, Brooke Tessmacher, and Taryn Terrell. Maria has been in wrestling since being part of WWE’s first established Diva Search in 2004, so we’re talking 11 years! She spent five years in WWE, which included being the final Diva to pose for Playboy, but she would never hold a title. Maria has spent the last few years as the heel valet for her real-life husband Mike Bennett, mainly at ROH, and she’d be definitely continuing that role should they go to TNA. However, I would love to see her compete as well, and hopefully go on to capture the Knockouts Championship!

PRO WRESTLING: Sport First. Entertainment Second.

This is my second attempt at writing this column. The first attempt failed in my eyes. I found myself on a tangent far from the core message I intended to deliver. I became focused on individual tragedy in the wrestling world as a definition of the value of wrestling as a sport. Upon proofing the article I became less than thrilled with my product. I was annoyed by the meandering into the horror stories. In some desperate attempt to apply sympathetic feelings towards the acceptance of wrestling as a sport. Needless to say that article was dismissed. I realized two things. The first was that pandering to sympathy to rally support for an opinion actually diminished the validity of that opinion. The second realization was that this particular argument required neither deception nor sympathy mining. Your emotions are not required. Your fandom or lack of fandom is not a requirement. The only requirements are a modest amount of critical thought. A bit of fairness in critique. Most importantly, a tad amount of respect.

Compare deaths resulting from competitive action and Pro Wrestling is at the top of that list. Compare brain trauma resulting in neurological disorders leading to depression and often resulting in suicide. Wrestling is right there with football at the top of that list. Like the NFL becomes by week 6, Wrestling is in a constant state of injury. The old saying applies to both sports. “Everybody is playing with some type of injury”. It is constant wear and tear. Constant impact followed by impact. With Wrestling there is no off-season. No all star break. There is however several performances per week. The damage inflicted through an individual’s pursuit of Wrestling is greater than any other sport on the planet. Bar none. For furtherance and details of a sad and macabre nature I suggest google. As I wrote above, I need not mine for sympathy. The comparatives exist. But for this topic a shoot from the hip approach is far superior.

The commitment required by participants to the sport is on a par with any other sport on the face of the planet. Practice, eat and sleep. That is the world of a professional wrestler today. What is required of an athlete to rise to the top of this sport is as heavy a price as exists. The time commitment, fitness regime, meal requirements and rest requirements are absolutely all consuming. On a par with other sports. Once again without an off-season to recuperate.

Game planning is an integral part of the professional wrestling world. The combatants design and perfect the routine prior to performing it for the entertainment of a live crowd. Practice creates better results. Practice helps reduce injury risk. Practice provides the ability to provide the best product available. Compare it to an NFL team. The team practices a game plan all week long. The club scouts the upcoming opponent and creates a practice schedule. Then practices are contoured and plays are installed for the week based on the scouting report. All in an effort to provide the best possible performance come gameday. The best possible outcome as they scripted during the week leading up to the performance before a live audience. The only difference of note is that wrestling is planned and practiced by both adversaries in unison.

Wrestling has fallen under the headline of Sports Entertainment. What sport would exist without entertaining? The love of wrestling is only usurped by the love of football here in the United States. Like football, the fans are, well, fanatical. They live within the sport at times. Rising and falling with the tide of their heroes. It affects some in a very personal way. The attachment is real and it becomes a part of life. Just like football, baseball and basketball among others. Your personal investment in the success of your favorite leads to disappointment and sometimes elation. The emotional roller coaster is just as unpredictable as any other sport. The participants know the outcome. The spectator does not. From that aspect, wrestling provides the same escape and opportunity for fandom as any other sport in existence.

No conversation about wrestling’s authenticity as a sport could be complete without at least a mention to the scripted nature. Should you wager on wrestling outcomes? No, unless random betting is your vice. The size, speed, strength and other skills cannot be translated into accurate prognostications. The outcome after all is preordained. I assert that the script has no negative bearing on whether or not wrestling is a sport. Why would that be a disqualifying point? Gymnastics, ice skating and a slew of other activities that nobody hesitates to label sport is fully scripted as well. Why is the gymnast who executes the practiced double back flip not marginalized because of the fact that it was scripted? Same with the ice skater. But the wrestler who jumps from the top of a cage onto a table is a fake. How that type of duality can exist in one mind is a puzzling human trait. The double standards are flawed and biased. Professional wrestling is not a fight. Professional wrestling is professional stunting. Played out in long term segments. The greater the skill of the athlete the greater his following and subsequent earnings. Just like every other professional athlete. If you look at professional wrestling with an objective eye the only thing you can see are great athletes putting themselves in harms way to provide entertainment to the fans who demand it. Wrestling is a sport in every possible way. It is high time that the professional wrestling industry was referred to first and foremost as sport.